As a summer vacation project for a fourth-grade elementary school student, I conducted an experiment using a navigation-equipped DOE (Department of Earth) device.
My child was interested in how to modify the motor car they used in class to make it faster, so we decided to conduct an experiment. A key aspect of the experiment was considering and addressing factors that could cause variability in the experimental design to ensure reproducible results. Since the curriculum primarily focuses on "confirming and experiencing phenomena," I felt that education on reproducible experiments was lacking, and I aimed to teach this to the child through this independent research project.
Although the children couldn't understand the complex calculations and formulas, they followed the navigation-assisted DOE to plan and analyze experiments, and even carried out replication experiments. I assisted with parts that required difficult decisions, but I realized that with the strong support of the navigation-assisted DOE, experiments could be carried out to a certain extent.
After the experiment, one child commented, "Planning and preparing the experiment was difficult, but measuring and discussing the results was fun. Next time, I want to repeat the experiment, taking into account the variability in measurements." This made me realize that the essential aspects of experimentation remain the same at any level.
